A fantastic day today.

We decided to have a quieter day today after a fantastic but exhausting day yesterday (and yes, you’ve guessed it, another night of no sleep last night! What a surprise lol!;) )

After the excitement of a baby slug in the lounge (which Alfie studied minutely at close quarters then took outside to safety!), we walked down to Lidl in the blazing sun to get a few bits then came back and blew up the paddling pool. I was very impressed with myself for blowing it up as I’m a weed at such things and always pass out lol! I went inside to get some warm water and looked out the window to see that Alfie had stripped off naked already ! He loves paddling pools! The children had a fantastic time playing with a load of their bath toys in there. When they’d had enough they donned dressing gowns and played in their canvas tunnel and tents, did some gardening and then came in for omelettes. After lunch, Holly had a lovely 2 hour sleep, giving us lots of Mommy-Alfie time. We sorted washing together (Alfie loves matching socks!), played with his train track, did some counting and activity books (at Alfie’s request obviously, this is unschooling! He counted to 8 on his own whilst counting a spider’s legs. I’ve only heard him get to 3 before he starts saying 16, 18 and other random numbers previously. It proves you have to trust children to learn when they’re ready and not panic at all the 3 year olds counting to 70), then spent ages just chatting in our bed and reading lots of books. He has been the best company ever today, and no tantrums. I think we all needed a quieter day and the 1:1 time did him a lot of good too.

After Holly got up we made a lasagne for dinner then went back out to tidy the garden and get the washing in. Holly didn’t want any help from me – it was all Alfie. He had to help her put her doll’s hat back on, push her in the swing, play on the slide with her. She idolises him. Sometimes he loves it and, like today, it warms the heart to watch them play together, other times he roars no and they both end up screaming and fighting! It’s only very recently that they’ve properly played together though and it fills my heart with joy when they do. Holly’s 2 babies also had a go in the swing and down the slide lol!

I was also amazed at my efficiency today – I had washing on the line by 8am lol! I’ve also planted some more carrot seeds and some butternut squash with Alfie, fed and watered all the vegetables, weeded front and back, cleaned out Jasmine’s tray, put away a load of dry washing, deep cleaned another kitchen surface, washed up, made a picnic and got all tomorrow’s clothes ready Rich even mowed the very long lawn tonight! Kind of makes a mockery of what I’m about to post, but our house is always rather grubby and this just so sums up my feelings about it all. I’d seen it somewhere before but a friend on a forum posted it today and it just seemed so apt.

‘Babies grow up, we have learned to our sorrow,

So try and leave jobs that can wait til tomorrow.

Children get older while you’re not looking,

And years stretch ahead full of cleaning and cooking.

So settle down cobwebs and dust go to sleep,

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.’